Travel troubles delay Pierzynski's return

March 18, 2007|BY MARK GONZALES.

TUCSON, Ariz. — A.J. Pierzynski's adventuresome travel took a scary turn Friday night when his flight from Orlando had to make an emergency landing, delaying the return of the White Sox catcher and forcing him to be scratched Saturday from the starting lineup.

Pierzynski said a power failure caused his commercial flight to land in Tallahassee, where he spent the night at the airport while rescheduling his connections to Tucson.

"They couldn't take the chance," said Pierzynski, who took advantage of a personal day off and the Sox's day off Thursday to visit his family. "They had to get us down as fast as they could. They said we would have major problems, which I took as a crash."

Pierzynski saw his family for the first time since reporting to spring training on Feb. 16. His wife Lisa has been attending to son Austin, who was born Feb. 5 and is too young to fly.

He had been scheduled to fly from Orlando to Las Vegas before arriving in Tucson. His new itinerary sent him from Tallahassee to Atlanta on a 6 a.m., flight, then to Phoenix. Pierzynski said another mechanical failure delayed his arrival in Tucson two hours.

"Sitting in the Tallahassee airport was lots of fun," Pierzynski said sarcastically.

Pierzynski's delayed arrival came four days after he, Rob Mackowiak, Darin Erstad and travel director Ed Cassin took a 55-minute helicopter ride from Surprise to Tucson after the Sox game against Kansas City.

The flight cost about $1,400, but they arrived about three hours ahead of the team bus.

Twist of fate

Center fielder Brian Anderson insisted his right ankle was fine after limping to first base on a grounder for the second out of the ninth in a loss to the Angels.

Anderson said he initially rolled the ankle during batting practice and then aggravated it in his last at-bat while taking a hard swing and miss that caused him to tumble.

Anderson barely attempted to run to first after getting jammed by Alex Serrano.

"It freaked me out. When I went out of the box, I told myself I'll take the out because I don't want to do anything stupid," Anderson said.

Extra innings

Most of the Sox regulars will head to the Valley for three consecutive games. But Scott Podsednik and Jim Thome will stay in Tucson to get more work in minor-league games, and relievers Bobby Jenks and Mike MacDougal will pitch Sunday at the minor-league camp.